Aussie Halts Gain, Yields Fall on Retail Data; Kiwi Rises

The country’s bonds advanced amid speculation the Reserve
Bank of Australia will cut interest rates by March to support
the economy. New Zealand’s dollar rose against all its major
counterparts after data showed building approvals for detached
houses surged to the highest in more than two years.

“The Aussie is struggling to rise,” said Satoshi Okagawa,
a senior global markets analyst in Singapore at Sumitomo Mitsui
Banking Corp., a unit of Japan’s second-biggest financial group
by market value. “I can’t see an immediate pickup in corporate
confidence or retail sales.”

The Aussie was unchanged at $1.0503 as of 4:55 p.m. in
Sydney after rising 0.4 percent in the past three days through
yesterday. New Zealand’s currency climbed 0.2 percent to
NZ$1.2524 per Australian dollar and rose 0.2 percent to 83.86
U.S. cents.

Australian retail sales fell 0.1 percent in November from
the prior month, the Bureau of Statistics said today, while
economists estimated a 0.3 percent increase. Job vacancies
dropped 6.9 percent the same month, a separate report showed.

Traders see a 60 percent likelihood that the RBA will cut
its benchmark rate to 2.75 percent or lower by March, according
to overnight index swaps data compiled by Bloomberg. The key
rate currently stands at 3 percent.

N.Z. Dollar

Permits in New Zealand for dwellings excluding apartments
rose 4.6 percent in November to 1,382, the most since May 2010,
the country’s statistics office said.

“There seem to be higher expectations for New Zealand than
Australia in terms of the resilience of their economies,” said
Takuya Kawabata, an analyst at Gaitame.com Research Institute
Ltd. in Tokyo, a unit of Japan’s largest currency margin
company.